The present invention relates to a profiled seal for being held in a passage slot in a structural part of an automotive vehicle and for sealing a lowerable window pane of the vehicle.
The seal has a stiff holding flank that is partially surrounded and held by a U-shaped section of an attachment clamp. The clamp secures the seal, and particularly the holding flank, on the structural part. The profiled seal comprises, in cross section, an upwardly extending, upper sealing lip which can be applied to press against the window pane, a downwardly extending, lower sealing lip which lies recessed under the upper lip and is below the upper edge of the structural part, and a cover lip which is attached on the upper end of the upper sealing lip and extends away from the window and toward the structural part. The free end of the cover lip extends away from the upper sealing lip to be above the holding flank of the seal, and that free end extends into a groove which is defined between the top of the holding flank and a separate cover strip which is located inward of the seal.
Examples of prior art profiled seals include ones shown in German Published Application OS 37 09 612 Al and German Utility Model GM 19 60 992.
A conventional profiled seal of the above described type may be developed as a hollow chamber in the region of the upper sealing lip. But, such a seal profile is undesirable for stylistic and functional reasons. This known seal profile can easily either bulge out or else form places of indentation. This would then require greater forces of displacement upon the opening and closing of the window pane. One particular disadvantage of the traditional profiled seal is that the free end of the cover lip can easily slip out of the groove between the holding flank and the cover strip when the window pane is in its fully open position. Due to the absence of support for the upper sealing lip by the window pane, even a slight pressure from above on the sealing lip is sufficient to allow the cover lip to slip out of the groove, which is highly undesirable.